The MLB trade deadline may be behind us, but the MLB rumors keep on flowing. Today we have updates on the Dodgers getting denied and the Mets future.
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, with teams now left with few options to upgrade their roster if they still need to.
The race to the postseason is on, with September coming up quickly. With a still-expanded Wild Card slot, teams have more reason than ever to keep their foot on the pedal all year long.
Here's some of the latest rumor talk from around the MLB.
Buck Showalter's future with the Mets
The New York Mets made a massive pivot on their strategy to buy as much talent as possible and hope that it accumulates into wins. Half a season in and they've realized that strategy is a poor one, instead pivoting to the way things have always been done: Building up a pipeline of young players and focusing on development.
It might take Steve Cohen longer to build a winner than he'd like, but this is truly the right way to do it. He's saying all of the right things to fans in the stead of a miserable facing of the facts at the trade deadline, let's see how he follows through on his sudden epiphany.
Lost in all of this, though, is Buck Showalter. Is he the manager to lead this team into this new era? That's a great question, and a topic that has been hardly broached while more pressing matters have gotten the lion's share of attention.
Bob Nightengale, in his latest column, said Showalter's fate will be the, "first order of business," for the Mets this offseason.
Showalter feels like more of a win-now manager, and has been critiqued by Mets fans for his lack of a tendency to give young players opportunities. A betting person might put their money on Showalter getting shown the door at the end of this season.
With a year left on his deal, it might serve the Mets to just ride out the remainder of the deal and see how things go. After all, they're looking at 2025 or 2026 before they're highly competitive again, anyway.
New piece joins Pete Alonso as likely Mets trade piece
Sticking in Queens, after Showalter's fate is determined, the logical next step will be for New York to figure out what they're doing with their remaining competitive pieces. Now that the Mets have faced the music on needing to build a youth pipeline, they have several pieces that don't exactly fit the timeline.
Pete Alonso is one of them, and is widely expected to at least get discussed in trades this winter. With a fairly weak free agent market, it would make sense for the Mets to dangle a player like Alonso, whose ceiling might be higher than what teams would be viewing in the free agent market.
Nigtengale also mentioned Edwin Diaz, closer and Timmy Trumpet aficianado, as another possible trade piece. One catch, though: He needs to prove his health.
Next up, All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso, who was on the trade block last week, could be traded with All-Star closer Edwin Diaz possibly joining him once he proves he's healthy.
Diaz was injured in the World Baseball Classic before the Mets season began and was the first domino to fall on a miserable, miserable Mets season.
Justin Verlander also denied Dodgers with no-trade clause
On trade deadline day, a deal was agreed upon between the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers to send Eduardo Rodriguez to LA.
Only, one small, but crucial detail: Rodriguez had a 10-team no-trade clause and did not agree to the deal. That put the kibosh on the transaction and left the Dodgers scrambling.
That story was well publicized on Tuesday, trade deadline day earlier this week, but what wasn't was the fact that the Dodgers were actually rejected by players with no-trade clauses twice.
Nightengale reports that Justin Verlander, who wound up in Houston reuniting with the Astros, a team he's won plenty with, also turned the Dodgers down.
Three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander showed no interest in going to LA before choosing to return to the Houston Astros, and Eduardo Rodriguez flatly snubbed them, rejecting his no-trade clause.
Ouch. What a horrible showing for the Dodgers, who are thought to be a premier team that players should be tripping over themselves to get to play for. Not so much anymore.
Rodriguez turned the team down because he wanted to keep from uprooting his family. The Dodgers were one of 10 teams, all thought to be positioned on the West Coast, on his no-trade list.
Meanwhile, Verlander had an outright no-trade clause and waived it to get to Houston. Sounds like the Dodgers couldn't have gotten the deal done even if they were motivated enough to overpay with the 'Stros in the running, an organization he knows well and feel comfortable with.
